Thoughts 10/31/13

As I read this book, I often find myself agreeing with a majority of what it says, but then I wonder if I am being tricked, or coerced by the author into agreeing with them. I wonder if I had another book telling me just the opposite would I be as easily convinced? Then I think why are all the examples this guy seems to use Canadian, if this is so great why aren’t more American schools doing it? I feel that my cynicism towards this is making it very difficult for me to whole sale buy into the ideas that the author has.

Fix 1 – Sometimes it is difficult to separate attitude from grading. In our school I think that it is true that girls might be overrepresented on things like honor roll. Girls understand how to “play the game” of school much better than boys do.  I like the idea of having separate categories for behaviors instead of grading based on it.

Fix 2 – My late work policy has changed so much during my 7 years of teaching. I don’t think I can fully buy into the idea of no 0’s. The only way a policy like this would work is if you, would give incompletes to students who never finish work. Eventually we get to the end of the quarter, term, or semester and then we are forced to make a decision. Do we give the student a 0 for not finishing work? I also think that it is true that this is not a real measurement of their achievement and ability in the class and more of a measurement of a behavior, but what else is there to do? I have also found that when I have put 0’s in for grades in the past it has very quickly made some students notice and then hand in their work versus just leaving an empty grade which usually sees the student leaving the assignment until the last minute of the grading period.

Fix 3 - Agree with this fix and that bonus should only be used if it is enhancing the learning process.

 

Another thought that I had based on this discussion is the reaction of some parents to this whole process. Is this school district ready for the parents, that have children right now who are getting A’s and B’s based on their effort, and these kids who have been A or B students their whole life are now going to be receiving a report card full of 1’s and 2’s. I know the explanation will be something like the following “well this is an accurate representation of what your child can actually do.” However, are we then forced as a district to admit what we had been doing these prior 10 years was actually lying to you and your child about their achievement levels and artificially inflating their grade because they were a hard worker. I think school and parent communication is going to vital during this whole process.